Adin Steinsaltz will be speaking at Congregation Ahavas Achim in the middle of the day on Shabbat and at Congregation Etz Ahaim at 4:30 pm. I hope at least my husband will be able to hear him; there is a little chance that maybe if I can get my daughter to come with me and play with her friends, I can listen, too.
The Velveteen Rabbit
The Velveteen Rabbit will be showing at the newly re-opened Forum Theatre in Metuchen at 3 pm on Sunday. You can follow the Forum Theatre on Twitter (@ForumTheatreNJ). From the review of the Velveteen Rabbit on Facebook by Graham Gudgin:
I do not want to give too much away, but it was an extremely entertaining show. Steve Graham, playing Velveteen, was very engaging, and Maggie Graham played three roles, and played them very well. One thing I noticed especially was that while there were sad and scary parts, there were also funny and happy parts, and the whole thing was so very well structured and paced, that it held the youngsters’ interest throughout. I found that there was enough to keep the adults amused too, which always helps. In addition, the music, by Paul Farinella, was great.
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In this post I’ve juxtaposed two very different events, both of which interest me – ah, the beauty of eclectic interests! Have you seen the Velveteen Rabbit? Read the book? Have you heard Adin Steinsaltz speak? Read any of his books?
There is also a blood drive at a private home in Highland Park this Sunday.
Boy Peers Into Window of Jerusalem Pizza, Highland Park
No pizza served at any of these events, but I thought you might enjoy this photo of a boy peeking into Jerusalem Pizza on Raritan Avenue. Click to enlarge.
This bridge leads over the Raritan River into Highland Park from New Brunswick. It is hard to believe that in the 18th century one had to take a ferry to cross over the river. The bridge was named the Lincoln Highway Bridge in 1914 according to Jeanne Kolva, a local expert historian. You can find a timeline of when all the Highland Park bridges were built here.
I liked this shot of the bridge a little better than the top photo (do you see graffiti as art or as pollution or ?), but no water in this shot.
In honor of Lag B’Omer, which starts tonight, here’s a post about the previous Jewish holiday, Yom HaAtzmaut. Maybe by Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, I’ll have something to say about Lag B’Omer.
Two weeks ago was the annual RPRY (Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva) march around the block for Israeli Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut). This “little” parade isn’t so little; with parents and neighbors in attendance, the numbers in the crowd may have reached 800.
One of people who came to the parade was Mayor of Edison Jun Choi. Here is RPRY Principal Rabbi Gross introducing Mayor Choi (wearing tan suit), as he calls Edison “best city in the world outside of Yerushalayim” (Jerusalem).
And here is Mayor Choi declaring Rabbi Gross his favorite Jewish day school principal, possibly his favorite educator. You could tell they were both enjoying each other.
There is an upcoming mayoral primary in Edison: you can find out more by visiting Jun Choi’s website and Antonia Ricigliano’s website. One of my son’s RPRY teachers, “Morah” Rachel Callen, is on Jun Choi’s campaign signs (it doesn’t say “morah” – teacher – on the sign, but that is how we think of her).
Not everyone who marched was a human being. This dog was quite popular.
Some of you get paid to speak; others hope to get paid one day. One thing that we all face as paid speakers is the issue of payment vs. exposure. That is, we will be invited to speak pro bono, or will be offered less than our usual rate, and we’ll have to decide if it’s worth it to take less money in order to get exposure or visibility…only a few of my pro bono speaking engagements have paid off in clients or future speaking engagements. Read the rest.
Last Sunday we went to Sandy Hook, a lovely beach with dunes at the top of the New Jersey Shore. There is a bay side and an ocean side to Sandy Hook.
Ocean, beach, and sky at Sandy Hook, New Jersey
In contrast to the golden sunset above, the sky was blue at the beach a few hours earlier.
Sky Watch Friday is a photo meme with photos of sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, gray skies, pink skies, dark skies and any other kind of sky posted by bloggers all over the planet.
Playing in the April water at Sandy Hook, New Jersey
We had exceptionally warm weather on Sunday, and so we traveled with the traffic to the top of the New Jersey shore to a wonderful beach called Sandy Hook. More Sandy Hook photos coming on Thursday, as part of Sky Watch.
Have you ever been to the Jersey Shore? Where did you go?
Three Thursdays at Three Libraries in Central New Jersey
Eva Abreu Presents, Adam Wolf (at laptop) and Jessica Levin (standing)
Last night was the “inaugural” presentation of our Social Media Networking Talks with Eva Abreu as our “Social Media Tour Guide.” Annie Boccio talked about the many friends she has made via social networking. We had a presentation by Paul Grzella about Getting Published in Daily and Weekly Newspapers and MyCentralJersey.com. I presented “Twitter, Blogs and Websites” — more about my presentation in a separate post. Adam Wolf showed ways to target audiences in Facebook; he used his wife’s business, Places Everyone, as an example of how one can attract attention to your site using Twitter and other social media. Jessica Levin taught us how celebrities used traditional media like television and magazines to brand themselves; one can now use social media as a way to brand one’s business or organization.
Thank you to Graham Gudgin for his important role in arranging last night’s talk at the Edison Public Library.
One woman asked a question about poor spellers. Can one advertise one’s business via social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs) and misspell words? If it’s a small business, what do you do? Suggestions?
My daughter and I visited the circus in New York City last week. Here are four photos (of the 108 photos I took that day) that have some red. All can be enlarged by clicking. What is this person doing with his body?
My favorite part of the whole Barnum and Bailey Ringling Brothers Circus was the elephants.
These acrobats had dim lighting, but the reds attracted my eye.
One can understand why they call this the Greatest Show on Earth. Everywhere you look on stage, there is some action. One act is starting when the previous finishes its presentation. The dancers with the swinging skirts were marvelous.
For more posts with a lot or a little red, visit Ruby Tuesday:
Yesterday my daughter and I (and her friend and her friend’s sister and her friend’s mom, who arranged the whole trip) went to New York City. When you are six years old, this is a real adventure. I enjoy when my daughter is inspired, awed, and thrilled with a trip. The top photo was taken outside Macy’s; to me, it says “Spring in New York City.”
Our first stop after riding a double-decker New Jersey transit car (we rode on the top level) and venturing through Penn Station, a sight in itself if you don’t have to go there every day was Macy’s, for the Macy’s Flower Show. As you may be able to see above, the flowers were situated above the stations that sell jewelry. Tours were going round every half hour explaining the different flowers on display. My daughter took a photo of one of the three flowered flamingos (I’ll save that photo for a future post, as it needs a bit of Photoshop work to cut off someone’s head that shouldn’t have been in the composition). I didn’t care for the noise inside Macy’s, but I did enjoy when the perfume ladies gave their scented cards to my curious and inquisitive daughter (she learn to ask for a card with a perfume scent after the first two were handed to her).
Here is a hint of the Barnum Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden; more about the circus in a future post (or two or three).
My son (the middle son, the filmmaker) went on a field trip last week with his class to the Rutgers Agricultural Museum in New Brunswick. Here is an old-fashioned firetruck that he photographed. (I didn’t go on the trip; he took his own camera).
Part of the reason for the trip was the boys have been studying the 39 Melachot, the 39 acts of work that a Jew is not allowed to do on the Sabbath. All of these Melachot are agriculturally-based, so their teacher used the museum as a way to show them threshing, winnowing, grinding sheaves (I have no idea what those are; I took those words off Wikipedia). Each boy had been assigned one Melacha to study in detail.
My son’s Melacha was weaving. He had already presented to the class, and his teacher told me later that he gave my son weaving because it was a more difficult one, but he knew my son could handle it. He did an origami basket project with his class. Yes, I am proud of him!
